I am looking to buy a digital camera that can take high quality pictures of a golf swing. I need this camera to take at least 8 frames per second. I would really like 10 frames per second. I searched the entier "Steve's Reviews" and I think I only came up with one that comes close seems to be the Konica DiMage Z5. This records images at "10 fps image size of 1021 x768 in Ultra High Speed". I am a little confused with this because I also thought I read that the Z5 takes continous pictures and low resolution. I know I could be confused with the "Movie Mode". Please let me know if there are any cameras that might do the job for me or any feedback on the Z5 would be appreciated.

What if you bought a camera which has less resolution, but more fps in movie mode?

This is from Steve's review of the Konica Minolta Z2:

The Z2 has an exceptional movie mode and allows you to capture motion video at sizes of 640x480, 320x240 or 160x120 at either 15 or 30 frames per second. The Z2 is the first digicam to also offer a 15 frames per second SVGA (800x600) movie option. In addition, the Z2's autofocus system operates continuously during movie capture. You can also enable the Optical zoom option in the Movie record menu to use the 10x optical zoom while you are recording a movie. Be careful with this option as the focusing system has difficulty keeping up with the zoom lens. We recommend you set the focal length before recording, and if you're going to use the zoom, do it slowly.

Thanks for the help. I looked over the specs for the z2 and it may work. I am very interested in printing these imgages. At 800 x 600 I think it will work. 1021 x 768 may be a lot better. Do you know any way I can get a sample print from the z2 and z5? I also would like to know how these cameras do in low light situations. Thanks

If you can frame so you don't require any cropping you can make a 4 X 6 from a 1021 x768 at 170 PPI. That is a fairly good quality print. 800 X 600 would give 133PPI. Even that is better than you might expect, but you would see deterioration from 170. A movie frame would give around 107PPI, which isn't very good.

If you have a decent printer you can make your own prints to check the quality. Download one of Steve's sample photos. Open it in Irfanview and Image>Resize/Resample. Check 1024 X 768, make sure the default Lanczos filter is selected and OK.

Go File>Print. If you are using letter size photo paper set the printer properties to Landscape and best quality on photo paper. In the Irfanview dialog check "custom" with "Aspect ratio" checked and put 6 inches in the width. You might have to change the units to inches. Put the image as far in the upper left as it will go and print. You can put the 600 X 800 below it and rotate the 640 X 480 so it will fit on the end. You should be able to get all three on one sheet unless your printer requires really large margins. And they will all be together for easy comparison.

The Z2 doesn't have a focus assist light, so focus can sometimes be difficult in low light and low contrast. I've never had much difficulty with cameras like that. I just pre-focus on something with better light and contrast at the same distance. The difference in ambient light doesn't affect a flash shot to any appreciable degree. It is better of course to have an assist light, but you seem limited in choices. Otherwise it is about the same as any other f2.8-f3.7 unstabilized camera in low light.

Most newer Sony camera's have a Super Burst mode. In this mode you set the intervel between shots and the camera takes 16 imagesin 1 to 2 seconds (depending on the interval). These images are small but are arranged to create one larger image. Each frame can be reviewed consecutively in camera. I use this mode all the time for my son's baseball team to analyze swings.

Thanks Slipe. This is the kind of info that I am looking for. I never heard of the term ppi. I figure this means "pixtels per inch". Now maybe I can figure out how to get the highest quality print. I am looking at the photo printers to do this. My ideal picture would probably be about 16 images printed in 4 rows of 4 to a total size of 6" x 8". I will check on some printers for quality and maybe I can put this together.